A half-hour before their championship match on Friday, Class 2A singles finalists Nicole Copeland and Andrea Jansson were hanging out together, having just had lunch, talking and smiling and enjoying each other's company.
Friends and teammates, soon to be foes.
Setting aside that friendship proved difficult, however. The Edina teammates battled inconsistency, largely stemming from mutual affection, before Copeland, the defending state champion, took control and pulled out a 6-1, 6-4 victory at Baseline Tennis Center at the University of Minnesota.
"We're such good friends," Copeland said. "Before the match, we had lunch and we were having normal conversations. I flipped the switch when I got to warmups. But then right after the match, we were back to being friends."
The two players were so close that Edina coach Steve Paulsen didn't dare speak to either during changeovers.
"No, we stayed away. A long way away," Paulsen said with a laugh.
For Jansson, a senior who joined the team last year after her family's arrival from her native Sweden, familiarity and a case of nerves, along with Copeland's power game, proved too big a trifecta to overcome.
"There were a lot of people here," Jansson said. "I've never played in front of that many before. In the beginning, I was like 'Well, I'm not going to think about it,' but it was hard."
